Parking concerns delay Exeter development

EXETER — A developer who plans to bring a pocket neighborhood and private social club to Franklin Street hopes to work out a parking plan with neighbors before moving ahead with the redevelopment project.

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By Jason Schreiber

seacoastonline.com

By Jason Schreiber

Posted Jun. 20, 2014 at 2:00 AM

By Jason Schreiber
Posted Jun. 20, 2014 at 2:00 AM

» Social News

EXETER — A developer who plans to bring a pocket neighborhood and private social club to Franklin Street hopes to work out a parking plan with neighbors before moving ahead with the redevelopment project.

Representatives from Porches at Exeter LLC went before the Zoning Board of Adjustment Tuesday night seeking a variance to allow fewer parking spaces than required for the project.

The plan for properties at 1, 9, and 19 Franklin St. calls for the construction of 15 townhouse units with porches to be called Porches at Exeter.

The project also includes The Club at Porches, a private clubhouse.

The clubhouse's amenities would include a fitness room, club room and a 75-seat dining room.

Kathleen Mahoney, who's proposing the project and plans to purchase the properties from property owner Al Lampert, described the club as a "supper and social club" that would serve dinner to members from 6 and 9 p.m.

The plan included 29 parking spaces, but Zoning Board members said the project would require somewhere between 43 and 54 spaces.

Also at issue are 11 parking spaces in a parking lot on one of Lampert's properties that are used by businesses at the Long Block building next door.

The Long Block has an easement signed in 2005 giving businesses the right use those 11 spaces Monday through Friday between the hours of 7 a.m. and 7 p.m.

While the club's parking will be used more at night when club members arrive for dinner beginning around 6 p.m., there would be an overlap between 6 and 7 p.m. when the Long Block would still be allowed to use those 11 spaces, meaning fewer would be available for the club during that hour.

Project officials are now trying to work out an agreement with the Long Block businesses to allow the shared use of the parking spaces to continue.

But with limited parking in the area, Stephen Kaneb, the new owner of the former Loaf and Ladle restaurant building at 9 Water St., urged the Zoning Board to deny the variance, saying it would diminish the value of his property, which has no on-site parking.

Kaneb, who has proposed renovating and expanding the Loaf building and opening a restaurant, suggested the town survey the parking conditions downtown.

Mahoney said she hopes to have about 100 club members to make the project economically viable; 15 of those would be members who are residents living in the townhouses to be built on Franklin Street.

Some board members asked about the possibility of increasing membership beyond 100, but Mahoney said that's not her plan.

"The space is limited. We can't have too many members or the members who are paying the dues and funding the business aren't going to like it and it's not going to work," she said.

The ZBA made no decision on the variance request and another variance needed to allow part of the project to be built in a residential zone. The plan will be discussed again at a ZBA meeting on July 1.

According to the plan, the parking lot for the clubhouse will be located at the corner of Clifford and Franklin streets — the same spot where Lampert's old garage once stood before it was demolished against the wishes of some members of the town's Historic District Commission who hoped some of the garage could be preserved.

Lampert originally proposed replacing the garage with a building that would have a restaurant on the first floor with apartments upstairs, but that changed after Mahoney began making plans to buy the property for the social club.

ZBA Chairman Robert Prior said he was "shocked" and "disappointed" to now see a parking lot on that corner.

"The essential character of the neighborhood is certainly not enhanced by having the parcel at the corner being a parking lot whether it is surrounded by greenery or not," he said.

But Tim Phoenix, the Portsmouth lawyer representing Mahoney, said he and others felt that locating the clubhouse away from the street in a more private spot, rather than directly at the corner of Clifford and Franklin streets, would be a better spot.

Mahoney said she's already met with the owner of the Blue Moon Evolution restaurant located behind the property and that she likes the idea of the parking lot location.